Acharya Prashant explains that the compilation of the Vedas, with its vast Karma Kanda (ritualistic portion) and the concise Upanishads, is a testament to the honesty of the compiler. They did not just present the final, finished product, which is the Upanishads, but revealed the entire process. If only the Upanishads were given, a person might be overawed, develop an inferiority complex, and feel that such heights are beyond their reach, making it difficult to form a direct relationship with the texts. When one looks at the entire body of the Vedas, one sees a very human thing. The compiler did not hide anything, much like grandparents who share not only their glories but also their struggles, inadequacies, and failures. The summit, which is the Upanishads, was reached after a series of attempts, struggles, and suffering. The honesty of the compiler is paramount; they could have presented only the best excerpts to glorify the Vedas, but instead, they presented the entire body of knowledge. The word that emerges from this massive compendium is honesty. The development of the Vedas is an organic growth, and one cannot simply compartmentalize the Karma Kanda as rubbish and the Upanishadic part as fantastic. Even within the non-Upanishadic parts, there is great wisdom, such as in the Devi Sukta and Nasadiya Sukta. The early Upanishads, like the Chandogya and Brihadaranyaka, are voluminous and not as cleanly filtered as later texts like the Ashtavakra Gita or Bhagavad Gita. They contain material that is not of the same level of glory as the rest of Vedanta. The sages loved humanity and did not want to hide anything, so they presented the entire bundle. They trusted that the inheritors of this knowledge would have the discretion to sift what is timeless and useful from what is time-bound and merely preparatory. The Vedas are not just the apple, the final fruit, but represent the entire process of the making of the apple. They disclose the whole journey, including the stumbles, through which the fruit of wisdom was ultimately reached.
